I remember being strongly affected by the presentation
of Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles on television about two decades
ago. I still have a few notes made on 28 January 1980, on a theological dialogue
between two priests on Mars. While I recognize the dialogue, that scene was not
included in the broadcast I taped off the air several years later, which suggests
I might have taped a butchered version of the original program. But there is also
a note on what was for me the most memorable scene of the entire drama.

After
watching this program on television, I dug out the original book, and I could
not find the scene I wanted to look up. I repeated this attempt about a month
ago, to no avail. I concluded that the scene in question must have been added
by whoever wrote the teleplay, which turns out to be Richard Matheson, celebrated
science fiction author, screenwriter, and writer of classic episodes of the TV
series The Twilight Zone.

Ray Bradbury also made a stage play out
of The Martian Chronicles (Woodstock, IL: The Dramatic Publishing Company,
1986). (It is rumored that he has been working on a screenplay as well.) This
play is by far the sketchiest and to me least satisfactory version of the story,
though there is one more expedition, as well as scenes involving the settlers,
than appear in the television version I have on tape, which is what I will report
on from here on in.

Comparing this television play to the contemporary run
of video science fiction, one finds The Martian Chronicles extremely "deficient"
in special effects, with a concentration on serious themes instead of the blockbuster
spectacles that now monopolize the attention of the infantile American audience.
Most of the background is very ordinary and not very futuristic. The Martians
are bald, with slightly aglow eyes and no ears, and they sport simple white robes.
The Martian cities are composed of abstract geometric shapes such as spheres and
cones, in stone. The story begins at a very slow pace by today's standards, though
it ceases to drag once we are in the thick of the expeditions. There are several
voice-overs, a technique not much in use these days, but some of Bradbury's poetic
prose is thus preserved. The haunting spacey theme music is by Stanley Myers.

Whatever
there is to carp on from a contemporary technical perspective, Bradbury's thematic
richness comes through undiluted, even expanded by Matheson's script while some
of the plot developments of the original chronicles are omitted. A half-century
ago Bradbury gave us a damning critique of American society in the guise of science
fiction (as he was to continue in Fahrenheit 451): the crassness, small-mindedness,
blind ambition and greed, militarism, witch hunts (omitted in this teleplay,)
spiritual emptiness, nervous preoccupation with mindless partying and compulsive
distraction that we dare to call "fun," obtuseness to impending destruction, and
a scandalous lack of curiosity about the cultures of the indigenous populations
we exterminated while colonizing our own land.

"Part One: The Expeditions"
includes three exploratory expeditions to Mars. The first crew is killed by a
husband (probably out of jealousy) concerned by the dreams his wife is having
over the Earthmen who are just arriving and whom no Martian has yet encountered.
When the second expedition arrives, the crew comes upon a midwestern American
town mysteriously transplanted to Mars, complete with the crewmen's relatives,
some of which were deceased on Earth. Though totally mystified, the crewmen are
seduced by the ministrations of their "relatives." Captain Black only comes to
his senses when he is about to go to sleep, in bed in the same room with his "brother"
Skip. Black guesses that all the people in the town are Martians in disguise defending
themselves the only way they know how, by recreating familiar scenes telepathically
borrowed from the memories of the Earth "invaders." Skip completes the story for
Black and reveals his true Martian appearance, but it is too late for Black, as
he collapses dead from the poison he ingested with his dinner. The next day, the
Martians, still in the guise of Earth people, now dressed in black, conduct a
traditional Earth burial for the crewmen they have killed, and then disappear.

Back
on Earth, Mission Control has been totally baffled by the disappearance of the
first two crews, but a third mission is sent to Mars, this one headed at last
by Capt. Wilder (Rock Hudson). A couple of his crewmen are typical crass American
ignoramuses, but there is a thoughtful black crewman, Spender (Bernie Casey),
who is full of doubts from the beginning about the impending colonization of Mars.
Wilder is a thoughtful man himself, but dismisses those doubts. "What's wrong
with colonization?" he asks innocently, whereupon Spender gives him a look. On
Mars, the crew finds only the ruins of a dead city, but no Earth explorers and
no Martians. Spender is very troubled and goes exploring on his own, and concludes
that the Martians were accidentally wiped out by a plague brought on by contact
with the Earthmen: the Martians died of chicken pox. Spender is infuriated by
the crass indifference to the extermination of a whole civilization, and disappears.
He has since spent his time teaching himself about the Martian civilization, and
now identifies with the Martians. He kills three of his crewmen with a Martian
weapon. Later, following a standoff with Wilder and the cowboy-character Parkhill,
Spender explains to Wilder why he has chosen to kill off the crew in order to
keep Mars safe from Earth contamination for another half-century. Wilder refuses
to join him. Spender intimates that there are still surviving Martians. Spender
implores Wilder to protect Mars if he wins the fight. During a subsequent attack
from Spender, Wilder is forced to kill him.

As "Part Two: The Settlers"
commences, the inevitable colonization of Mars is implemented, with Wilder as
the Chief Coordinator.

Two years later, late at night, an elderly couple
is lying in bed. Leif Lustig hears a noise, and when he goes outside in the rain
to investigate, he sees an apparition of his son David, who had disappeared in
the second expedition. "David" rejoins the family the next morning. Mrs. Emma
Lustig, who had rejected the apparition the night before, now treats David as
a normal member of the family, while her husband, who had encouraged the apparition
to approach, is extremely disturbed by his reappearance. Leif suspects that David
is an imposter and David flees the scene. After a long disappearance, he returns,
presumably prompted by Leif's unspoken wish for him to come back. This time Leif
doesn't make any trouble about David's reappearance. Emma insists that the whole
family go into town that night, even though David panics at the prospect. The
night life in the Mars colony is very vigorous, and thrust into it, David panics
and then disappears into the crowd. Then Leif goes to look for him, encountering
Wilder in the process, who becomes disturbed by their conversation about Leif's
missing son.

The following scene, with Father Peregrine in the church, is
the one that most indelibly impressed itself upon me, which is why I decided to
review this production after all this time. I have attempted to describe the scene
and transcribe the dialogue, which you will find at the end of this piece.

Now
I want to skip ahead to what follows after. Wilder visits Father Peregrine, whereupon
it becomes evident that there is a Martian changeling at large in the town, assuming
human form.

Leif Lustig, in search of his son, learns of the mysterious
reappearance of another lost loved one, Lavinia. He visits her family's house
and confronts "Lavinia," urging her to return with him as David. Lavinia tries
to ward off Lustig, but is trapped. After a conflict ensues between the two fathers,
Lavinia turns into David and runs off with Leif. Everyone is closing in on David
as Wilder comes on the scene. David, after running through the crowds by himself,
catches up to his "parents," but others who have a claim on him converge on his
location, and he rapidly changes from one person to another: to Lavinia, a killer
being chased by a policeman, someone's husband, and back to David. Wilder intervenes,
identifying the changeling as a Martian. The Martian can't take the stress any
longer and dies an agonizing death, assuming each of his guises and finally dying
in his original Martian form, and then vanishes. Wilder is stunned.

There
is a threat of world war back on Earth.

Wilder visits Parkhill and his wife
to warn him of impending disaster. Parkhill is dressed up as a cowboy this time,
and he has opened his dream diner to sell his weenies and burgers to nonexistent
customers. He refuses to believe the news about Earth, insisting that the next
wave of migration will make him rich once the customers start pouring in. Parkhill
is as much an ignorant redneck as he was on the third expedition. Wilder gives
up and leaves.

Parkhill is alone, and he hears a customer enter. But it
is a Martian. Parkhill panics and shoots him dead. The Martian vaporizes and his
cloak, mask, and a silver box fall to the floor. Parkhill's wife is distraught,
but Parkhill just makes lame excuses. A fleet of Martians appear over the hill
sailing their sand ships. Parkhill assumes they are out for revenge, and forces
his wife to flee with him in a sand ship he had found long ago but had never before
piloted. During the chase, Parkhill shoots several Martians, but they overtake
him. Instead of exacting revenge, one of the Martians speaks to him in English
and hands him a treaty, granting him a huge tract of Martian land, and warning
him to prepare for tonight.

That night there is an atomic war on Earth and
the Earth population is wiped out.

Six months later Wilder returns to see
Parkhill. Wilder had been away, visiting Earth, but the family members he hoped
in vain to save, along with everyone else, are dead. Wilder hears about Parkhill's
encounter and the land grant for the first time, and he is exasperated that he
yet again missed his long-sought opportunity to meet and talk with and learn from
a Martian at last, while this obtuse and ignorant cowboy blithely turned his encounter
with the Martians into a massacre. Wilder comes to a sudden realization of what
Spender had been trying to get him to understand, and Parkhill is alarmed at such
subversive extremist views. Wilder leaves and drives off to the abandoned Martian
city.

As Wilder strides through the old Martian city, a Martian approaches,
and greets him in Martian before adjusting himself to speak English. Wilder's
dream of meeting a live Martian has come true, but when he extends his hand, it
goes right through the Martian. The two are ghosts to each other, and see only
their own worlds, not the world the other sees. Wilder is troubled, but the Martian
tells him it hardly matters which civilization is alive and which dead, which
is the past and which the future. Wilder is anxious to learn from the Martian,
to learn the secret of the Martian way of life, and he is frustrated. The Martian
explains:

"Secret …. There is no secret. Anyone with eyes can
see the way to live …. By watching life, observing nature, and cooperating with
it. Making common cause with the process of existence …. By living life for itself,
don't you see? Deriving pleasure from the gift of pure being .… Life is its own
answer. Accept it and enjoy it day by day. Live as well as possible. Expect no
more. Destroy nothing, humble nothing, look for fault in nothing. Leave unsullied
and untouched all that is beautiful. Hold that which lives in all reverence. For
life is given by the sovereign of our universe; given to be savored, to be luxuriated
in, to be respected. But that's no secret. You're intelligent. You know as well
as I what has to be done."

The Martian and the Earthman part
as friends.

At home, Wilder's children are bored. When Wilder arrives home,
his wife is worried, but Wilder explains his new realization. They have been hanging
on to the old way of life in futility. Wilder announces that the family is leaving.
While Wilder is gone to make some preparations, his wife goes into the playroom
to tell the children to pack for a camping trip, in view of the huge American
flag attached to the wall. The family piles into a boat and goes on a long ride
down the canal. After a while, Wilder asks his two children where they want to
stop. They agree to stop at the lost city. Wilder announces that this is their
new home. He has promised all along to take his children to see Martians, and
they repeatedly ask about the Martians. As they make a campfire at night, Wilder
tosses some old papers and books into the fire (including a book with the word
"Capital" on the cover), explaining that he is burning what is being left behind,
a way of life. He announces to his eager children that they are now going to see
Martians. He leads his family to the edge of the water. He points downward, and
says, "There. Those are the Martians." They look down and see their reflections
in the water.

Reaching into his pocket, Wilder pulls out a remote control
device, and pressing a button, blows up the rocket in the distance that had brought
them from Earth.

I don't think I have ever been more moved by a dramatic
presentation of a science fiction tale. And I have never forgotten that phrase,
"the gift of pure being."

All that is left to do is to present my transcription
of the brilliant scene as promised, an encounter between Father Peregrine and
the Martian changeling on the run. This is one of those rare moments in which
the visual presentation of science fiction (a very different beast from the literary
genre) really does challenge our philosophical foundations, in this case the selfishness
of religious belief.

Scene in Church

The
door to the church opens. Father Peregrine is at the altar. He hears something,
goes to close the door. Father Peregrine returns to kneel and pray at the altar,
then turns around and looks for an intruder.

"Someone there?"

He
approaches a water basin in the center of the room, sees blood dripping into the
water. He sees a hand bearing the stigmata, then the other, and begins to pray
intensely with eyes clenched shut.

"Enough." Father Peregrine covers his
face with his hands.

'Jesus' appears, in a robe, with arms crossed and folded,
with a crown of thorns. Father Peregrine reaches out his hand. Then he mutters
"You're trembling ..."

'Jesus' says: "Let me go."

Peregrine:
"Let you go? But no one keeps you here."

'Jesus': "Yes …. you do."

'Jesus':
"Avert your gaze. The more you look, the more I become this. I am not what I seem.
I'm not that vision. I didn't mean to come here. I was in the town square. One
thing: I lost hold … and suddenly I was many things to many people. I ran and
they followed. I fled in here. Then you came in. And I was trapped."

Peregrine:
"No…. no…."

Martian Jesus: "Yes … trapped!"

Peregrine:
"But … you're not what you seem?"

Martian Jesus: "Forgive me. I wish
that I might be but I cannot."

Peregrine: "I'm going mad."

Martian
Jesus: "No … or I go down in madness with you. Release me!"

Peregrine:
"I can't. Not when you've finally come. 2000 years we waited for your return.
And now I am the one who sees you, and hears you speaking."

Martian Jesus:
"You see nothing but your own dream ... your own needs. Beneath all this I am
another thing."

Peregrine: "What am I to do?"

Martian Jesus:
"Look away from me, and in that moment I'll be gone. Halt, or you'll kill me!"

Peregrine:
"Or I'll kill you?"

Martian Jesus: "If you force me into this guise
much longer, I will die. This is more than I can hold."

Father Peregrine
and 'Jesus' exchange inaudible whispers.

Martian Jesus: "No … You
know that …

Peregrine: "That …"

Martian Jesus: "No
more, no less."

Peregrine: "And I have made you like this with my
thoughts."

Martian Jesus: "You came into the church. You looked at
the crucifix. Your old dream of meeting him seized you once again. Seized me.
My body still bleeds from the wounds you gave me with your secret mind."

Peregrine:
"…Oh, my sweet God …. Go, before I keep you here forever."

Father Peregrine
turns away. The door opens; the wind blows. 'Jesus' is gone. The priest turns
back around: no one is there.

Written 31 July - 2 August
2001, in celebration of the joy of pure being.

When
I transcribed the scene above, I erroneously assumed that this scene must have
been Matheson's own creation, and that there was no way to obtain this story in
print, as screenplays can be very hard to come by. Thanks to Ray Bradbury fans,
I have learned that the scene above was indeed based on a short story by Bradbury,
though not part of The Martian Chronicles. Apparently, there are enough
other Martian stories to make up another volume. The basis for this scene is evidently
Bradbury's story "The Messiah", which appears in the collection Long
After Midnight (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1976; pp. 55-66). The story begins
with a theological dialogue between Father Niven and Bishop Kelley. Father Niven
has the encounter with the Martian 'Jesus' in the wee hours. There is more to
the dialogue here than in the screenplay, as Father Niven exacts a promise from
the Martian Jesus to return once a year, on Easter. I think this ending derogates
from the story. I do not know how Richard Matheson came to include this story
in his teleplay. One of my informants claims that Bradbury wrote some of the additional
scenes and dialogue for the miniseries, but I have not as yet been able to verify
Bradbury's direct input. The miniseries is available as a three-volume VHS video,
and can easily be found via online auction web sites. (Ralph Dumain, 17 May
2003)

Take Two

After
acquiring the miniseries on video (StarMaker #1215, VHS, 3 tapes, 296 min.), I
finally had the chance to see it uncut, perhaps for the first time in 23 years.
I suggest that any of you who have seen any of the rebroadcasts or any tapes made
off the air, get hold of this uncut video. Indeed, the tape I worked with when
I wrote my original review was a butchered version of the miniseries. How much
was lost?

There are three parts to the miniseries, each approximately
98 minutes in length: (1) The Expeditions, (2) The Settlers, (3) The Martians.
The first part appears to be intact.

Part two is where the most damaging
cuts were made, all of which involve the adventures of Fathers Peregrine and Stone
after they arrive on Mars. Their scenes are sandwiched in between two segments
of the late David Lustig’s reappearance at his parents’ house, between the moment
he flees after “his” father expresses his suspicions about his real identity and
the moment David returns, leading to his fatal excursion into town with “his”
parents. The tale of the priests is based upon Bradbury’s short story “The Fire
Balloons”, excised from the original edition of The Martian Chronicles
and restored for the first time in the 40th anniversary edition (New
York: Doubleday, 1990; pp. 90-108), and anthologized again thereafter.

Upon
introduction to Col. Wilder, Fr. Peregrine explains his mission, but he also harbors
a personal curiosity about the Martians. He enquires concerning a rumor about
blue spheres, but no substantiation is forthcoming. Peregrine wants to exchange
ideas with Martians if any can be found. He wants to see the old Martian cities.
Wilder compares Mars to the Wild West: colonization is proceeding too abruptly,
there is too much corruption, and spiritual guidance is needed. Wilder confides
in the priests: he wonders if the Spender who attacked his fellow members of the
third expedition was the real Spender. Perhaps there are still Martians afoot.
Wilder shows them the ruins of a Martian city. Pieces of it are being dismantled
to be sent back to Earth. While others drive back to the Earth settlement, the
priests stay behind, choosing to walk back on their own. Fr. Peregrine is actually
the one who takes charge.

The two priests debate theological issues as they
hike back to home base. By dusk they are lost. Three blue spheres appear. Stone
is afraid, convinced it’s the devil’s work. Peregrine is unafraid; he tries to
communicate, showing his cross. The spheres depart. But Peregrine’s shouting
appears to provoke an avalanche. As rocks rain down from the mountainside, the
priests prostrate themselves on the ground, fearing the worst. But a blue sphere
descends from the sky, picks them up, and moves them to a safe spot. Peregrine
is elated: this proves that the spheres have souls and free will. Stone as usual
wants to limit his attention to Earth souls that need saving; he is averse to
non-human creatures. Peregrine asks: “Can’t you recognize the human in the inhuman?”
Stone replies: “I would rather recognize the inhuman in the human.”

This
exchange typifies their contrasting attitudes. They camp for the night. Peregrine
argues that the blue spheres know sin and moral life and have free will. He argues
that saving Earthmen is the Martians’ atonement for their original sin of killing
the members of the first expeditions. Stone thinks Peregrine has his own interests
at heart, committing the sin of pride. Peregrine confesses that his initial motivation
to become a priest was to meet Christ in person.

This confession sets up
the assumptions behind Peregrine’s later encounter with the Martian changeling.

Wilder
is preoccupied with troubles in the colony caused by lax immigration controls.
He sends out a search party for the missing priests.

The priests spend the
night on the cliff. Around dawn the blue spheres descend, and Peregrine awakens.
While Stone sleeps, Peregrine sets out to prove that the spheres are intelligent.
He jumps off the cliff, but instead of plunging to his death, he is saved in mid-fall
by a sphere, as he anticipated. Overjoyed, Peregrine tells the sphere he will
build a church for the Martians with a blue sphere instead of a cross. The sphere
identifies itself and its fellows as the Old Ones, who have no bodies and are
immortal, living in grace, each a temple unto itself, and having no need of any
church or salvation, unlike Earthmen.

Afterwards, Peregrine awakens Stone
and tells him the story, emphasizing that he heard His voice. The voice-over
narration concludes that there is a truth on every planet and that the priests’
Christianity is a partial truth in the mosaic of a larger truth to be discovered.

The
contrast between Peregrine’s affirmative, expansive attitude and Stone’s narrowed,
negative attitude gives this tale a large part of its interest. I find Peregrine’s
expression of faith noteworthy. For all the talk of sin and seeking after Christ,
he has a positive attitude toward the Martian spheres, derived, I would say, not
from any faith in God apart from people but from faith in his fellow intelligent
creatures. In effect, Peregrine jumps off the cliff placing his faith in the good
will of the spheres.

The rest of the second part proceeds as I originally
described. I think the series suffers with this part cut out. However, more
than half of part three was cut out in my abridged version, approximately the
first hour. While the narrative advances quite smoothly without the subplots
contained in the missing scenes, they do reinforce key themes in certain ways.

Wilder’s
space ship lands on planet Earth after it has been devastated by world war. He
finds the space command center abandoned, and is anguished when he plays back
the videotape of the final moments of its personnel before the fatal atomic blast.

Apparently,
before the Earth Holocaust took place, a large majority of settlers abandoned
the Martian colony, apparently to perish back on Earth. There are stray colonists
who remain on Mars, living in isolation from one another. The first one we see
is Ben Driscoll, skulking about the ghost town he lives in. He hears a couple
of phones ring, but there is no one on the other end. He finds a phone book and
proceeds to call every number in it, finally succeeding in reaching a live person,
Genevieve (played by Bernadette Peters). He hops into his one-man flight vehicle
and makes a beeline to her settlement.

The next scene finds another isolated
survivor, Peter Hathaway (played by Barry Morse), looking at the sky through his
telescope. He spots the space ship he had long hoped to see. Excited, he informs
his wife Alice and daughter Marguerite. He sends up flares but fails to make
contact.

Meanwhile, Ben finds Genevieve dressed to the nines and looking
ravishing. They are the only two left alive as far as they know. He asks her
for a date; she accepts. They go out on a formal date in an elegant but deserted
restaurant. He is a bit shy. She is vain, playing games. He cooks for her while
she preens, constantly primping and looking in the mirror. They dine. At the
end of the evening, she rebuffs his advances, but this glamour girl is happy to
have him around, as she needs a servant, a cook, and a handyman.

Disillusioned,
Ben hops into this flight vehicle and puts as much distance between Genevieve
and himself as he can. After over a week of flying, he succeeds in putting 10,000
miles between them.

Peter Hathaway and his family are up at night again.
Again, he spots a rocket, sends up flares, and this time the rocket lands. In
joyous anticipation, Hathaway begins to pack, telling his family he couldn’t make
it without them. In the morning, Wilder and Stone arrive at his home. Wilder
suspects things are not as they seem, as Hathaway’s wife has not aged and the
daughter is a different age than she should be. While Stone takes over the conversation,
Wilder ducks out to look around, and finds the graves of the real wife and daughter.
Wilder rejoins the household. While toasting his good fortune, Hathaway has a
heart attack and dies, his final words being that his family won’t understand.
The wife and daughter are impassive. They were not taught to cry. They are androids,
built by Hathaway to assuage his loneliness.

Wilder and Stone bury Hathaway.
They debate about what to do with the androids, who have not been programmed to
serve any other function. Wilder is inclined to take the androids away, but Stone
insists that they remain where they are, which would respect “the decision of
their creator.” They have the right to live the lives they were created to have.
“Their souls belong to Hathaway.”

Wilder and Stone say goodbye, and depart.
The androids sit around the table, just waiting. Ben Driscoll shows up at the
door. His needs are simple; he just needs a home and family. The androids now
know what to do.

Next, Wilder visits Parkhill, learns of the land grant
from the Martians, and the story proceeds as I have described.

These restored
subplots help to reinforce central themes of the whole story. Though Hathaway’s
“family” turns out to be androids rather than Martians in disguise, the existence
of the androids raises the now-familiar existential questions about the moral
nature of intelligent life, cast by Fr. Stone in terms of the relationship between
creature and creator. This is another way of creating a distancing perspective
from the familiar habits, mores, and assumptions of Earth culture.

The central
purpose of these subplots evidently is to show the futility of hanging on to the
old ways imported from Earth. What could be more ritualistic and pointless than
the assumptions upon which the date between Ben and Genevieve takes place? Ben
thinks he is going to play Adam and Eve; Genevieve acts like a narcissistic prima
donna in total disregard of the reality of her situation. Ben comes to the correct
conclusion, getting as far away from her as possible, a very satisfying resolution
for this viewer. Then Ben stumbles onto the android family and finds a home.
In his way Hathaway tries to hang on to the Earth’s dead past, in the persons
of his own deceased loved ones. All of this reinforces the central theme of this
final installment of the miniseries, Wilder’s decision to leave Earth ways behind
and begin a new life.

Viewing this series in its entirety, as with the abridged
version, is a powerful experience. While it lacks the fast pace and snazzy special
effects we take for granted today, when it comes to science fiction on screen
it is virtually unparalleled in its human content. Why does its message for us
to change our ways hit home as so few other productions do? My guess is that
it is not because of the strangeness of Mars but because of the familiarity and
utter conventionality of the characters, their lives, and our society transplanted
to an imagined location. The analogy to the colonization of America could not
be more conspicuous, as well as the all-too-familiar meaningless distractions
of modern life and the smallness of people’s dreams.

What hit home this
time even harder was Wilder’s dream that pervades the whole story: to meet the
Martians, learn from them, and to improve the ways of the human race. Even as
an instrument of colonization he anticipates the best and only understands later
the truth of Spender’s warning as he strives to keep his promise to the dying
Spender not to let Earth ruin Mars. In self-defense the Martians feel compelled
to resort to murder. They are accidentally and absurdly wiped out by a plague.
As a result, the survivors adapt themselves to Earth people, either by ceding
them land or taking on the disguise of Earth people to live among them and become
part of them. When the Martians realize that Earth is destroying itself, they
decide to give the survivors a second chance, a chance to start over. Wilder
finally understands this, as he explains to the alarmed redneck Parkhill, and
pursues his hope for a new synthesis of human and Martian ways. When Wilder finally
meets a live Martian, he learns that their worlds cannot quite touch one another.
The Martian cannot see his world nor can Wilder see the Martian’s. The Martian
asks him: how do you know you are seeing the ruins of our past civilization and
not the ruins of your future one? They part as friends, but they cannot share
their lives. After having been told he knows what must be done, Wilder takes his
last, bold step. He realizes his fellow colonists are stuck in the past. He packs
up his family, boats to a Martian city, to "where it all started," and
tells his wife and children they are all going to learn the Martian language,
study the Martian ways, and learn the secret of the way to live. And finally,
when asked to deliver on his promise to see the Martians, he points at the canal,
and, looking down into the water, they see their own reflections. Is there anything
else in visual science fiction to affect us so deeply, so intimately, and yet
with such simplicity? No, there is nothing like this. May we all learn to "take
pleasure from the gift of pure being."